Braveheart/Kingdom Of Heaven

A double bill of historical dramas. The multi-Oscar winning epic ‘Braveheart’ (1995) is set in 14th century Scotland, where the English nobles are staking their claim for lands and the Scottish throne. When William Wallace (Mel Gibson) is left an orphan by the brutality of the English, he vows to make Scotland strong again. Wallace grows up into a paradox of a man – on the one hand very well educated, on the other a ruthless killer and barbarian. As an adult he succeeds in uniting the Scottish clans to fight the English oppressors, only to be undone by betrayal and greed. In ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ (2005) a common man finds himself thrust into a decades-long war. Orlando Bloom plays a humble blacksmith who discovers that he is the son of a knight, and travels to the Holy Land to fight in the Crusades. A stranger in a strange land, he serves a doomed King, falls in love with an exotic and forbidden Queen, and rises to knighthood. Ultimately, he must protect the people of Jerusalem from overwhelming forces, while striving to keep a fragile peace.